An X-ray stand of the aforementioned type is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,584. The drive device of this X-ray stand comprises two motors, the one motor being provided in order to displace the support along the outer C arm and the other motor being provided in order to displace the inner C arm along the support. An X-ray stand of this type allows orbital displacements of approximately ±100°. In connection with such large orbital displacements, it can be difficult with a drive device consisting of multiple motors to achieve a steady movement of the inner C arm and a desired positioning accuracy without a complicated control-engineering solution. A drive device of this kind is therefore frequently expensive and needs a large amount of space.
From U.S. Pat. No. 6,428,206 an X-ray diagnostic apparatus is known in which the X-ray generator and the X-ray detector are held on a semi-circular C arm. The X-ray generator is connected by means of a first linear motor to a first quadrantal arm which for its part is movably held with a second arm by means of a second linear motor. By means of a third motor, this second arm is movable independently of the other motors. The support base is mounted on the floor, on a wall or on the ceiling. Here, too, the X-ray diagnostic apparatus has multiple motors for orbital displacement which, for accurate positioning, particularly in the case of the imaging technology described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,428,206, requires very accurate and synchronized control from a large number of possible positions.